Tourism on karst: karst and karst phenomena as tourist attractions, tourism and local development, tourist development and/against protection, karst in World Natural heritage;

Intensification of internal organization of the commission, intensification of mutual connections with other appropriate IGU commissions and international organizations occupying with karst;

TOPICS OF THE COMMISSION’S ACTIVITES

Saving Caves - Towards an International Protection System for Karst Environments

Accepting the relay-race from Commission “Environmental changes and conservation in karst areas”, dated by 1994, Commission Karst (C08-23) continues the project “Saving caves – Towards an International Protection System for Karst Environments”.

Steering Committee: George Veni, 1 person is proposed from France (the name is discussed by the colleagues), Viacheslav Andreychouk, Eko Haryono, Cahyo Alkantana, Bagus Yulianto. The formation of the Steering Committee is continuing.

The creation of data base about the most vulnerable and valuable , in terms of science, caves in different countries.

Glossary of the local terms on karst and speleology. The information about local term is generalized. Coordinator: Viacheslav Andreychouk

Publication of the first issue of karst local terminology, edited by V. Andreychouk, D. Ford and A. Kranjc.

Cave ice ice: geoindicated aspect

Karst Commission continues to publish the most advanced results of cave ice explorations in journal issue “Snow and ice” (till 2010 the name of this one was “Data of glaciological observations”). Now the review has the enlarged possibilities of the publication in colour. Review languages: Russian and English. Coordinator: E. Trofimova

Karst objects at the List of World Heritage

Completion of the nomination foundation of “Nature Park “Lena Pillars” to the List of World Natural Heritage.

Annotated Bibliography of Karst Publications

Commission is continuing the work under the Annotated Bibliography of Karst Publications.

Publication of the book “Annotated Bibliography on Karst Publications” (for 2008-2011) and preparation of its digital version.

Finalization of Commission’s own web site.

Intensification of internal organization of Commission, intensification of mutual connections with other appropriate IGU Commissions and international organizations occupying with the karst.

Networking

In March 2012 the workshop of IGU Commissions C.08.09 Environment Evolution and C08.23 Karst is planning. The topic: “Environmental Changes and Karst Processes”

Generally during the International conferences Commission Karst communicated with the following IGU Commission: C08.04 Climatology, C08.06 Cold Region Environment and C08.18 Hazard and Risk.

This conference will focus on hypogenic karst and all that entails. Hypogenic karst is formed by rising groundwater and is a growing field of interest with much to learn and refine. It is being organized by the National Cave and Karst Research Institute of the USA in cooperation with Karst Hydrogeology and Speleogenesis Commission of the International Union of Speleology.

IWIC is a series of workshops devoted to ice cave research. This Workshop will consist of oral and poster presentations held in Postojna and field trips to ice caves and caves and karst in SW Slovenia.

More detailed first circular, at the beginning of December, will cover the important dates, registration conditions and the program of the meeting.